There had been a volunteer waiting for Nikola bright and early. A young man with a sabre at his side. As it turns out the Gudiao had attacked a caravan transporting his family and there had been no survivors. Nikola gave the man one of his enchanted daggers. A nasty, curved, little things that once inside flesh couldn’t be gotten out until the target was dead. The man had looked skeptical that the dagger would be of any use, but he had admired it’s craftsmanship and pocketed it.

On the way to Yuzhang they made a line towards the mountains. There was a canyon at their base, carved by the Yangtze river, and that was where the Gudiao was rumored to live.

“Say, Gege, are you really a warrior or are you only in it for the prize money?” Asked Jin Tu. This man looked frail and if he wasn’t as flat as board Jin Tu would have been sure that he was leading a lady to her death.

“I have fought my entire life. Besides, it’s the manticore that is going to be fighting the Gudiao.” Said Nikola, pointing at the monstrosity that was carrying him on it’s back.

“Can you really control this thing?” Asked Jin Tu and the manticore looked insulted at him. The old woman’s head snapped at the guide and revealed a sharp row of fangs.

“I am not a thing! I am a manticore, a noble being.” She barked at Jin Tu and he quickened his steps.

“It’s not so much as controlling as mutual understanding.” Corrected Nikola as he petted the lion’s mane to calm the creature. It purred in content and sniffed the air.

“I smell rot.” Said the manticore and then turned to walk in the direction of the stench. The guide followed. When they reached a clearing in the forest it was quiet. Too quiet. The guide sucked in a breath as he looked up a tree to see a torso, just a torso, nailed at a branch. The manticore growled.

“Wasteful little noble!” She screamed and then let out a roar. Nikola stared at the rotten chunk of meat. This was used to mark the Gudiao’s territory, he was sure of it.

“I think I can follow the breadcrumbs to the liar, Jin Tu. You can leave now.” The guide looked like he was ready to be sick as ooze dripped from the torso.

“You can find your way back to Danyang on your own?” Asked Jin Tu. Nikola petted the manticore.

“She remembers the way. Don’t you, granny?” The manticore hummed as it began to whip her tail back and forth.

“Yes, the useless human can go home. I will take out that noble! To use perfectly good meat as a territory marker! Pah!”

“We need to get it down, give it a burial.” Said Nikola. Then he hopped off as the scorpion tail nearly pierced him.

“Sorry, I was angry at the Gudiao. It won’t happen again, master.” Said the manticore as it went to climb the tree with the torso. Nikola looked for something to serve as a shovel but found nothing. He looked at Jin Tu pointedly and cleared his throat.

“It is going to become more dangerous the further in we go into it’s territory. You should leave already.”

“Right, fine. You look after yourself now, Gege.” Jin Tu rushed away from the clearing and when Nikola couldn’t see him anymore he stomped on the ground and a hole appeared. The manticore dropped the torso in it and then Nikola covered it with dirt and stones.

“I don’t know who you were.” Said Nikola to the chunk of meat buried at his feet. “But rest easy knowing that the Gudiao is going to be vanquished.”

“Truly?” Asked a disembodied voice. It was of a woman. Nikola looked around and saw a white light approaching him and nearing the hole.

“Yes.” Said Nikola simply. It didn’t seem to be malicious. Marely a victim that needed some consolation before it moved on.

“It came in the night.” Said the ghost woman, the white light hovering over the dirt. “I had a baby so when I heard the cries from the woods I immediately rushed in the direction of the noise.” Nikola nodded. The rest of this woman’s companions must have rushed after her into the trap.

“How many were you?” He asked, the light now hovering in front of his face.

“We were a caravan of five. Myself, my husband, our baby daughter and the two drivers. One for our wagon and one for our baggage.” Nikola felt awful about having to press for further information but the torso might have been rotten and yet ooze still dripped from it. He needed to know how many days ago the attack has happened.

“How long ago was that?” The light flickered and dimmed. Now that the last part of it was buried the woman was moving on.

“It happened three days ago.” She said. “My baby might be still alive. The beast didn’t reach our camp.” She said and Nikola sucked in a breath. Three days out in the woods for a baby when snow has been falling for all of them?

“Your daughter…”

“Search for her!” Demanded the ghost. “Follow the moss and find her. If she has succumbed to the cold at least bury her, don’t let her rot in our wagon!” Then the light exploded in a violent flash of light. Nikola looked at the manticore which was snuffling the earth in the opposite direction of the moss. He whistled at it.

“Come on, granny. We have a baby to find.” Once the manticore got next to him he climbed on it and let it take him in the direction of the moss. The snow was falling around him and a cold wind was blowing. Nikola heated both his and the manticore’s body and yet they both took turns to complain about the cold.

“You are a mage, yes? Make the blasted snow stop!” Said the manticore and Nikola sighed.

“It is a bit late for that. The snow is already falling. It will take a lot out of me to send the clouds somewhere else. And who is going to help you with the Gudiao then?” The manticore growled at the name of the beast she has duped a noble.

“I can take the lady! I am strong!” Each word was broken by a growl. So furious was the manticore.

“The Gudiao has two meters on you in high. And a venous bite.”

“I saw the picture, it looks skin and bones. I have more muscle than it! And a poison tail that paralyzes!”

“Yes, well…” Anything that Nikola could have said was broken by pathetic small whizzes. Soon a clearing came in view. Both he and the manticore looked around in case the Gudiao was the one making the noise. Then the manticore sniffed the air and approached one of the covered wagons.

“It’s inside. A human child.” Nikola climbed off the back of the manticore and got into the wagon. Among various fabrics was a sickly looking baby. The girl’s eyes were closed and she let out small whizzes, her last desperate attempts to get help.

Nikola took the child inside his arms and she quieted down. He needed to feed her, and fast. But there was no food on him for such a small girl. He could give her some tea to combat the dehydration she was surely suffering from, but no food. Then he looked at the manticore and got a thoughtful look. Technically, it was a female manticore.

“Granny, this child will die. I will make sure you produce milk but you need to feed her.” He said to the now frowning manticore.

“She is not my child! And I am not a cow!” Snapped the manticore, showing him her tail. Venom dripped from it and fell on the forest floor, killing all the plants around the manticore’s feet.

“Please, granny. Do this good deed and I will make sure to extend your lifespan.” He pleaded and the old woman’s eyes glinted with greed.

“For how long?” She asked and Nikola got thoughtful. This manticore had considered a human’s torso a perfectly edible meat. So she might attack the people of Danyang when he left. But he could trick her, make her into a protector instead. And if she gets her meat from somewhere else than from humans then she won’t even complain.

“The average lifespan of a manticore is a hundred years.” He said and the manticore purred at that. “You will fight water ghouls for this time together with the other manticore.” He said and the manticore seemed to think it over.

“Ok, sounds fair. Bring the little girl here.” She said and Nikola touched the manticore and made it capable of milk production. Then he placed the little girl to a nipple and placed it into her mouth, massaging her throat so that she would start to suckle.

It went slowly. The girl barely had any strength left and the sun dipped under by the time Nikola deemed she had had enough. Now her eyes were open, but they were feverish. Nikola begun to chant a healing spell after a healing spell to get her to get better but it was too cold. He went back to the wagon and placed her inside, bundling her in robes. Then he went to the half-destroyed camp and got a fire roaring. Then he tied the manticore to the wagon and made her push it close to the fire.

“We are staying here for the night, granny. Do you mind keeping watch so I can sleep?” Asked Nikola and the manticore laid down near the fire to stare at the trees around them.

“You keep the fire going, and keep the little girl warm. I did not become a cow only for her to die in the night.”

“She won’t die.” Said Nikola as he climbed into the wagon and cuddled with the small girl inside. “I won’t let her.”

During the night the manticore couldn’t help the feeling that she was being watched. But she didn’t stand up and leave her post. Her humans were sleeping and needed her protection. She entertained herself by thinking about what the other manticore in the river would look like. Would he be muscular or lean? He was created to fight so he must be muscular!

For all that the manticore had the face of an old woman she had the heart of a young woman that has just blossomed. She was sure that the other manticore had shiny scales on his feet and soft fur on his body. She will make him hers, of that she was sure.

She heard a branch snap and she growled in the direction, daring whatever it was that was skulking in the shadows to come out and face her. Then she heard something run away from the camp. It sounded large. A baby’s wail sounded from the distance and the manticore showed her fangs to the darkness. It was the noble!

The noise had woken her humans. The man was out with a sword in his hand looking around wildly, the baby she fed behind him.

“It was the noble.” Said the manticore, her tail pointing in the direction she had heard the beast running away.

“It must have come here for the little girl.” Said her creator. “It is good we came here when we did or else she would have been but a snack for it.” The manticore felt touched that the noble was referred to the noble as it while she was treated as an equal. Her creator already had her loyalty but now he had her devotion.

“It will be suicide to run after it in the dark with a little girl holding us back.” Said her creator, staring at the trees. “It is good you didn’t take off after it, granny. You are one of the smartest manticores I have met, you know that?”

“And don’t you forget it.” She said, purring.